2015 Global Poker Masters Team Profiles: Canada and Germany

This Saturday, the first edition of the Global Poker Masters (GPM) will begin. The event is deemed the "World Cup of Poker" and will see eight national teams compete against one another in a very uniquely formatted event. Each nation will be battling for the right to be crowned poker's world champion.

Taking place March 21-22, the event will be promoted and broadcasted live on Twitch. Saturday, March 21 will see the first five rounds of action play out before the quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals take place on Sunday, March 22. Not only will you be able to watch the event live on Twitch, but PokerNews will be providing live coverage from the tournament floor.

The eight teams involved are from Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Russia, U.K., Ukraine, and the U.S. Each team will consist of five players, and over the course of the next few days leading up to the event, PokerNews will take a look at each one of the nations involved. We'll take a look at two teams each day, and first up is Team Canada and Team Germany.

Team Canada

Player

Lifetime Earnings

Current GPI Score

GPI Ranking

GPI National Ranking

Sorel Mizzi

$10,938,942

3,414.21

10

2

Ami Barer

$2,881,041

3,334.00

11

3

Andrew Chen

$4,441,769

3,283.24

12

4

Jonathan Duhamel

$12,764,848

3,237.12

14

6

Marc-Andre Ladouceur

$1,664,117

2,064.39

139

11

All five players on Team Canada are big names and top talents in poker. You might think this would bode well for the team, but heading into the GPM only Sorel Mizzi has been in any sort of form as of late.

Ami Barer and Andrew Chen both recorded their last live tournament cash in the Aussie Millions Main Event at the end of January, and Jonathan Duhamel's last big result was a win in a side event at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure that same month. Duhamel did cash in the World Poker Tour Fallsview event in the middle of February, but he seems to have taken a step back from the world of high-stakes poker tournaments in recent months. With so many of the competitors regularly involved in the world of high-stakes tournament poker, this could put Duhamel at a disadvantage.

Marc-Andre Ladouceur's last live tournament result was back in November of last year, as he's mainly been sticking to his virtual guns as a member of Team PokerStars Pro Online.

The question we can't help but ask in regards to Team Canada is, do they care about this event? With so much poker action going on in Malta involving plenty of big buy-in events and a happening party scene on the island, it wouldn't surprise us if Canada took this event a bit less seriously than the others and was eliminated after the first day.

Team Germany

Player

Lifetime Earnings

Current GPI Score

GPI Ranking

GPI National Ranking

Ole Schemion

$7,785,084

4,228.79

1

1

George Danzer

$2,094,336

2,534.01

64

4

Marvin Rettenmaier

$4,885,647

2,384.42

86

6

Philipp Gruissem

$9,461,396

1,688.66

236

15

Christopher Frank

$507,103

1,037.90

751

28

Similar to Team Canada, Team Germany is filled with young and talented players. The team is led by arguably the most talented tournament poker player alive right now, Ole Schemion. This kid just seems to win everything under the sun, and it only seems fitting that he would lead the charge that will bring GPM gold to his home country.

Then you've got Marvin Rettenmaier and Philipp Gruissem, again two highly-talented poker players. George Danzer is also very skilled, but his strength lies with his ability to play mixed games. No-limit hold'em really isn't Danzer's forte, but what Danzer may lack in pure talent in the game he'll make up for with on-the-felt toughness and a willingness to never want to give up. Last year, when Danzer was fighting with Brandon Shack-Harris for World Series of Poker Player of the Year honors, he fought very hard in all no-limit hold'em events he played, and we expect much more of the same from him at the GPM.

You might be wondering who Christopher Frank is. Well, he's the team's unknown commodity, but the kid can play. Like Schemion, he's super young and highly talented, and will bring to the table a résumé that includes a European Poker Tour London final table and a World Poker Tour National title. With Frank likely being an unknown player to the rest of the field, we like him to really surprise people and help bolster Germany's tough roster of players.

In the coming days, we'll be going through the rest of the teams for the first-ever GPM. Tomorrow we'll take a look at Team France and Team Italy, so keep it locked right here to PokerNews.

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